


Something In Common

by NeonMidnightMod



Category: wrestling - Fandom
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-10-21
Updated: 2009-10-21
Packaged: 2017-10-02 13:12:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeonMidnightMod/pseuds/NeonMidnightMod
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>PG-13; minor language, brief reference to m/m and m/f, angst, canon.</p><p>After the match between Shawn and Marty at Royal Rumble 1993, Marty and Sherri talk.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something In Common

**Author's Note:**

> Maintainer note: the author of this story is Guenhwyvar, fic originally archived with permission at Neon Midnight (geocities.com/dedicatedtotherockers)

by Guenhwyvar   
Sherri rubbed her hands together nervously as she stood outside the hotel room door. She wasn't entirely sure she should go in, but she supposed the least she could do was to apologize after her unsuccessful attempt to affect the outcome of the Intercontinental title match.

Taking a deep breath, she knocked.

A few seconds later, the occupant of the room answered. He looked rather the worse for wear, there were bruises beginning to form above his left eye and on his jaw, his dark hair was disheveled and his eyes were slightly reddened.

"Hey, girl, what can I do for you?" Asked Marty, sounding forcedly far more cheerful than he looked.

"I, uh, I just wanted to apologize for what happened in the ring earlier tonight �" Shawn just moved and…"

"Hey, hey, nothin' was your fault, girl." Marty gave her his best impression of his usual beaming smile, but it didn't quite work. "You wanna come in? I'm havin' a party here!"

She didn't know if that was exactly a good idea, but what the hell, she was fed up with the way things had gone tonight too.

"Yeah, sure." She smiled, and Marty stood aside from the door to allow her in with an exaggerated sweep of his hand.

The room was pretty bare, everything Marty had with him seemed to be already packed.

"You planning on leaving early?" She asked, puzzled. There were TV tapings scheduled for the next day, as was usual the day after a pay-per-view.

"Might as well, seein' as how I don't have a job no more." Marty shrugged. Sherri noticed the bottle of Jack Daniels in his hand, and realized he was certainly well on the way to being half-cut, if he wasn't there already.

"What do you mean, you don't have a job any more?" She asked.

"Just that. I just had a call from Vince. I'm being released, effective immediately." He shrugged again, like he was expecting it. He took another pull from the bottle, not even wincing as the liquor burned the back of throat.

Sherri numbly sat on the edge of the bed, staring at him in disbelief.

"But, what on earth for, Marty? You've only been back a few months, what the hell is Vince thinking?"

"Apparently, I was drunk during the match tonight." He sighed.

"Bullshit." Scoffed Sherri, without even thinking. She'd been in the business a long time, she seen more drunk and drugged up guys than she could care to remember, she could spot one a mile off. "You weren't drunk, not a bit of it."

Marty simply shrugged again. He didn't even seem to care.

"Well, someone told Vince that I was. I have a pretty good idea who, don't you think?" He asked, looking at her.

Shawn.

"I can't believe he'd stoop that low. And why, to get rid of you because he doesn't want a rematch? You got too close to taking his goddamn precious belt so he tells Vince a bunch of crap?" She was incredulous. Apparently there was nothing Shawn wouldn't do if he thought it was his own interests.

"I can talk to Vince for you." She said, "I'll tell him that's a bunch of crap, hell, everyone in the back would have noticed!"

"Thanks, sweetheart, but there's nothing that can be done now. A couple of the guys already tried to talk to him, he just said it's final and there's nothing he can do about it. I guess he just wants to keep Shawn sweet because he knows what he's gonna be worth."

"What?"

"C'mon, you know as well as I do how much talent Shawn has, despite being a goddamn self-centered egomaniacal jerk." He took another swallow from the bottle, and sighed. "Want some?" he asked, waving the bottle in her general direction.

"Sure, why the hell not. After all the crap I put up with from that asshole…"

Marty chuckled dryly to himself, retrieving two glasses from the cupboard and pouring a more than generous measure of the spirit into both of them. He passed one to Sherri.

"Cheers," he said, not sounding in the least cheerful, before downing his glass in one. Sherri shook her head sadly, before taking a gulp from her own glass.

"I, um, I wanted to say thanks, too." She added quietly.

"For what, girl?" asked Marty, looking at her with genuine puzzlement in his blue eyes.

"For butting in when Shawn decided to get in my face after the match," She gave him a small smile.

"Hey, you ain't never got to thank me for that. God knows if I'll ever get another chance to get a piece of that asshole now, may as well have made the most of it," he said, refilling his glass.

"I just… I can't believe what he did to me, you know? He told me he loved me." She sighed, finishing off her drink and holding the glass out for a refill. Marty poured it without even thinking.

"Yeah, well, Shawn's become a master at saying things he doesn't mean. He… he told me the same thing." Marty said, quietly.

Sherri stared at him for a long moment, as things slowly clicked into place into her mind.

"You two were… together?"

Marty nodded sadly.

"Yep. Right up until…" He trailed off, unable to speak the words 'until he decided I was excess baggage that was holding him back'. They both knew how Shawn's change of heart had gone down. It might have been more than a year ago, but for Marty the wounds were still too painful.

"Oh god, I had no idea. Marty…" Sherri was filled with sympathy for the dark-haired man. And she had been flaunting her relationship with Shawn in front of everyone for almost eight months. "I didn't know."

Marty shrugged again, trying hard to seem nonchalant even though he was fighting to keep from choking up.

"Not many people knew. We kept it pretty quiet, you know how people can be."

Sherri nodded sadly. There were more than a few assholes in their business who were homophobic enough to beat the crap out of someone for so much as looking "queer".

"But, what about all those girls you guys were always hanging out with?" She asked. It was true, the Rockers had been real babe magnets, with their fun-loving attitude and handsome good looks, girls flocked around them.

Marty sighed.

"Girls… are fun," he offered at last. "They always seemed to like us so… we used the attention for cover. Worked pretty well."

"How long?" She asked.

"Practically since the day we met." Said Marty softly. "We just clicked."

Sherri bit her lip. It was a long time, then. God, they'd been teaming for what, five, six years? She thought back to when she'd first come across the two young men in the AWA. They'd obviously been close, they'd never have had any kind of success if they hadn't been. In a wrestling world dominated by giants, Shawn and Marty were small by comparison; but what they'd lacked in size they'd made up for in speed, innovation and heart. Their close friendship had been a part of that, their perfect timing together in the ring, the ability to read each other and know what the other was thinking; it had been a huge part of their success. And all that time, they'd been an item… a couple? Relationships in the wrestling business were tenuous at best; it was a strain on even the strongest of partnerships �" and they'd survived that long? She shook her head.

"I'm so sorry." She offered, quietly.

Marty gave her a puzzled look.

"I mean, there's me moaning about the eight months I wasted with him; but you, you were together for years… I can't imagine how that must have felt." She shook her head again. Shawn had "dumped" Marty in the most cruel and painful way possible.

Marty didn't move, just stared sadly into his drink, trying to keep the tears at bay. He'd already shed too many tears over someone who didn't deserve it, and yet…

"I… I honestly thought we'd make it together, you know? Even when things started going downhill, and we were blowing moves in the ring and stuff, and we'd argue in front of everyone, that night or the next day Shawn would be sayin' he was sorry and we were just going through a rough patch, we'd be okay, and he'd… he'd tell me he loved me." Marty swallowed hard. "Right up until the day before he… well, dumped me, I guess. And I never saw it coming. Never. I kept believing that things would work out because I thought if I did then that might somehow make it happen. Even if Shawn had wanted to go off on his own and fight singles �" I wouldn't have stopped him. I… I just wanted him to be happy…"

Sherri felt tears welling in her own eyes at the raw emotion in Marty's voice. She'd been convinced she'd been in love with Shawn herself, but how quickly those feelings had turned to anger once Shawn had decided to use her as a human shield… it was nothing like what Marty had felt for him, that much was obvious.

"And the worst part, the really worst part is despite everythin' he's done, sometimes I look at him and I still see the sweet, fun guy he used to be and… I… I still love him." Marty's voice trailed off, and a single tear glistened briefly on his cheek before it was harshly wiped away, the dark-haired man hating himself for being so weak.

"He didn't deserve you." Said Sherri quietly. Marty stared at her.

"No, really, I mean it. I know what it takes to make a relationship work in this business, hell I've been through more stupid breakups than I care to count, but what he did to you… he took all that love and devotion and threw it back in your face. He didn't deserve you, Marty." She put a comforting hand on his arm, and took the bottle from his suddenly trembling fingers.

"Now," She said, more determinedly, "I say we get drunk as hell, and forget Shawn Michaels ever existed." She pointedly refilled both their glasses, and held one out to Marty. He took it, and offered her a small smile. She gave him her best grin in return. "And tomorrow, I'm getting out my little black book of contacts, many of whom would be more than happy to offer you a job, seeing as Vince apparently has his head up someone's ass."

"You ain't gotta do that," said Marty. Sherri gave him her best death glare, although she couldn't quite stop smiling. Marty took the hint, and stopped any further protest.

"To… better things?" She offered, holding out her glass.

"Better things." Said Marty, clinking their glasses together.

 

End.


End file.
